The present invention relates to a device that cleans and/or decontaminates, in a continuous manner, a strip of a thin film of thermoplastic material. It relates, more specifically although not exclusively so, a device for cleaning the two opposite faces of a continuous strip of film of thermoplastic material, for example a strip formed by at least one layer of a polyolefin material, such as polyethylene or polypropylene, for the purpose, among other things, of using that cleaned strip for the fabrication of flexible bags containing a perfusion liquid to be administered intravenously to a patient.
Manufacturers of films of thermoplastic material, of polyethylene for example, deliver the latter in the form of rolls having a pre-determined width. During the fabrication of those films, by extrusion for example, and during their conditioning, such as their sectioning to the desired width and their being wound on a mandrel, as well as during their transportation, their handling and their treatment, those films generally are contaminated by particles of an extrinsic nature or by fragments or particles that are generated by the films themselves.
When the web of film is to be used for the fabrication of flexible bags or pouches for containing perfusion liquids, it is important that they are free of contaminating particles. If there are particles that adhere to the film, the particles may injure the patient in that the particles could be carried along with the perfusion liquid into the circulatory system of the patients.
It is also important that the face of the film, which is in contact with the perfusion liquid, be sterile, so as to prevent germs or other possible pathogenic micro-organisms from contaminating the perfusion liquid and being carried therewith into the circulatory system of the patients.
There is known a system for cleaning and sterilizing in a continuous manner a web of film made of thermoplastic material. The web is fed through a static bath of a liquid which may be, for example, a sterilizing liquid, such as hydrogen peroxide. That known system, however, often does not satisfactorily remove all the particles that may be adhering to the film. The system includes the additional disadvantage of requiring a periodic replacement of the bath which progressively becomes loaded with particles and micro-organisms and therefore must be replaced.